This CDr is the first real release from Lithuanian drone/ambient project that plays for a couple of years already. I simply missed mp3 releases that were thrown out before without paying too much attention, but after getting this CDr I had time to listen to his stuff more carefully. Disc is packed in slim plastic case. Insert with thanks, titles and something similar to Rorschach test included. This album was released by small Australian label Left (field) Recordings. Despite the fact that everything looks nice, but it's intolerable, I think, to throw several empty CDrs with artwork and tell artist to burn them himself, saying that artwork etc. was expensive. So be careful with this Australian label. Now about the release itself. It is cold, gloomy and bleak ambient soundscape that lasts for 45 minutes and is divided into 8 separate tracks. The most suitable time for listening to this album is late at night or even better - early in the morning. Not too pretentious, but decent tracks, somehow similar to Black Seas of Infinity or Beyond Sensory Experience creations because of their horrific atmosphere and absolute emptiness. Album starts from ghostly and distant tolls of bell and a loop of the track "Questionable". These elements in connection could pretend to some strange melody. After some time reverbed noises falls down on them and doesn't let you simply enjoy your listening, but draws you deeper. After the second track, Skies, starts, it becomes more clear of what to expect from this release. Anxious droney hums, distant noisy moans, harsh dissonances and absolute emptiness and despair that is even strengthened by rare harmonic consonances. Title song - minimalistic melody of high notes, shining from the sea of low frequencies. Black Heaven - a little noisier track - dripping of water somewhere behind the wall of noises and dissonances. Sound is highly reverbed, but rather strangely processed so you feel as if materializing in narrow, but long tunnel. This was the first track, after which I thought that maybe I should add horror ambient next to drone and dark ambient. Uncomfortable atmosphere. But this track serves as an introduction into much darker part of the album. Determine - sharp low pulsations that periodically irritates my ears. Impression of desperate wandering through the airless cell, filled with weird consonances. Grand Meaning - side by side with uneasy atmosphere, created with effected bass guitar, manipulations with voice appears. The voice, hidden under distortion and other effects, multilayered in places, mixed with droney noises of guitars, creates excellent composition. For me it is without a doubt the best track in the album. Lesson - much more silent than the others. Perhaps that's because it is placed just in the very lowest range of frequencies so it is easier to feel it than to hear. Like hum by the electric station, becoming more active from time to time. And final track of the album - Outwards. It differs from all tracks in Barren Directions. Some kind of light returning trip to reality. Highly reverbed guitars, loop of rhythm, bass. Primitive, but very nice track. Mix of blues and psychobilly, played by mechanical drummer and two drunk musicians while black shiny shoes of the hanged vocalist is one meter above the ground. Impression is like that. This Surdr's bar of emptiness closes and asks you to leave. After live performance of Surdr, I was left with decent impressions, after this album it's even more pleasant. I hope that this youngster won't waste his ideas in countless projects that he has at the moment, but concentrate to those that gives tasty fruits. Like this CDr.

Format: CDr
Released: 2009
Label: Left (field) Recordings
Edition: 75